Nature Valley Explains Why Their Bars Cover You in Crumbs

If you’ve ever eaten a Nature Valley bar, you know how messy they are. No matter your precautions, eating one always ends with your clothes, desk, floor, and everywhere else covered with crumbs. Tired of littering his life with granola, one reporter from Slate called General Mills, purveyors of the quintessential crunchy bars, to inquire as to why they don’t change their recipe. He discovered that the company has no intention of changing the bars — and that there are a couple of hacks for keeping the crumbs in the wrapper until they’re in your mouth.

“People love the crumbs, they told me. They grew up expecting the hardness and mess from Nature Valley bars,” Slate’s Jeffrey Bloomer relays in the video. “And that’s what sets them apart.” There’s some sort of sweet nostalgia about snacking this way — covered in a dust of granola.

General Mills didn’t leave Bloomer entirely in the dust. They gifted him with some usable information — tactics for how to eat the bars without making such a mess.

There is no one official way to eat a Nature Valley bar, but Bloomer spoke with some Nature Valley employees who gave him a few different methods to try. One advised that eaters heat up the bar in the microwave in order to soften it. Another divulged that they like to open the bar above an open container of yogurt to make use of the falling crumbs. Two snacks are better than one, we always say.

One of Bloomer’s colleagues at Slate suggested perhaps the simplest method: crunching the bar into pieces inside the package before opening, eliminating the need for a crumb-spewing bite.

The Daily Meal has reached out to General Mills for further advice and information. We hope to soon update you to help support your snacking needs. In the meantime, don’t let the crunch scare you off — Nature Valley Bars are probably a more satisfying option than these unhealthiest snack bars.